Lasko : Le Train de la mort

This was a pretty good action movie with believable characters, given the genre. The ex- soldier Lasko sick of death and hiding out in a monastery (Mathis Landwehr) reluctantly takes up the gauntlet to be the Vatican's point man in a struggle against terrorists centered on a train bearing pilgrims from Cologne Germany to Lourdes.

You also have a deadly virus, helicopters, explosions, martial arts fights in and on top of the moving train, rockets, guns, knives, the works. Pretty good pyrotechnics too. The single most unbelievable thing in the plot is when a henchman parks his truck right across the tracks while waiting to pick up the bad guys, anticipating the train will stop before it hits him, thinking the bad guys control the engine. I cannot believe anyone would not simply have parked a few meters away, just off the tracks. Too stupid to believe even of idiots.

I could more readily swallow Vatican secret agents than that incident, though who knows. There were military orders of monks during the crusades.

Mathis Landwehr looks to be in great shape in the early scenes when he is shirtless. He has a fine physique: lean but muscular and looks completely believable as a martial artist.

I hope they do a sequel, as the title suggests. In English it was Lasko:Death Train. That suggests Lasko: the Next Adventure. I would watch it.

It's not a terrible film. It just isn't that good either. The constant slow-motion throughout every action sequence was incredibly frustrating. The scenes were a bit disjointed at time: just as I thought a scene was actually going to add something useful to the story, it'd jump to another little snippet. In saying that though there were some entertaining moments and hey, who doesn't find kung-fu religion-protecting monks entertaining?

Other than being a little frustrating with just how much better the movie could've been given the reasonable-ish story line and the odd explosion, not too bad a movie. Worth watching if you're procrastinating from doing more useful things

It was guilty of something fairly rare in action films: it had really good character development and a parade of characters centering on a situation instead of the "unstoppable fighter" persona so often seen in American films.

The action in this movie is second to the clockwork of characters acting within the situation they find themselves in, and I think that is what causes the lower ratings this movie gets at present. People are expecting a popcorn chewing, Stephen Segalesque brainless smack-fest and instead are treated to a decent cerebral thriller. With a very subtle sense of humor. (An instrumental "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Stones begins playing when Lennart says "Just call me Lucifer", for example.)

So the tension builds very early in the film to a warble and never relents until the very end. The peaks and valleys seen in contemporary writing are refreshingly absent here. The pace reminded me of some of the older, really good, espionage films of the '70s and early '80s.

Continuing the good; there weren't any cartoonishly evil characters nor sparkling ridiculous good guys. I could believe that Lennart (Arnold Vosloo) might've had a wife and kids to go home to. They all seemed "alive".

In fact, all the actors presented decent performances and the only one that stands out is Stephan Bieker. Stephan takes over every scene he's in and I think he's going to be a great actor.

However, the film isn't perfect, and its largest flaw is that of having too much story to cover in a short time. I felt that it could've easily been a 3 hour movie, and if it were filmed in the same manner, it'd have been a *great* film.

In short; the movie was a good effort, and it provided a really cool story with neat characters, but was ultimately too "smart" for an action flick and too short to tell the tale that needed to be spun. 6.5/10.

Even though I'm not Catholic, I weary of movies that bash them or portray their clergy or adherents in the worst possible light. 'Lasko: Death Train' is charmingly pro-Catholic, and a lot of fun.

What could be more enjoyable for Catholic 9 to 15-year olds than to see kung-fu monks try and stop mercenaries from distributing a deadly stolen virus on a train of pilgrims bound for Lourdes to see the Pope? For what it is, this movie is relatively safe for young people -- only a smidgen of vulgar language, very little blood, and nothing prurient. Classroom teachers should feel pretty safe about showing it to students.

The editing, music, cinematography, pacing, etc. are all very good. Okay, so the dialogue sounds like it came out a Japanese animated film at times, but kids won't care. There won't be anything new here for action flick fans, but what is here is handled carefully and done well.

I liked it. Kids will enjoy it, too.

An ex-soldier traumatized by death turned monk fond of martial arts is our hero. Cutting 'Death Train' some slack because it's an action flick means you're willing to look past hokey elements. What's harder is how unexciting the whole thing feels, moves. Other than decent explosions in the first hour this is slow city. Arnold Vosloo isn't given much to work with as the head villain and Mathis Landwehr while sufficiently built up by some sad flashbacks is stuck in a cookie cutter tale.

A group of thieves lead by Lennart (Vosloo) break into a research facility, steal deadly viruses for their buyer to be used as bio weapons. To make their escape from the country they board a train disguised as priests, nuns which is full of people, religion clergy heading for Lourdes. A group of Monks including Lasko (Landwehr) are made aware of them and their plan and must save everyone on board before the worst case scenario can happen.

Beneath the surface this is a fairly obvious 'Die Hard' clone. A bunch of flicks have gone the train route before and it's serviceable if done right. You get the feeling that with a more capable director or fine tuning the script this could have been a fun trip, but what's on offer is rather flat. The religious element isn't heavy handed, but ultimately you're gonna spend nearly two hours and all you'll have to show for it is three decent explosions (two vehicle related, one helicopter) and quick fisticuffs (two sequences on top of the train).

The word that bests sums up 'Death Train' is generic. The energy level is pretty low for the first halve and mostly boring until things kick up a bit later. Scenes where head priests, police try to map out a plan are awful and misc side characters pad time. It's shot well from a technical standpoint, but never rises above. Also known as 'Lasko: DeathTrain' this would see a short lived tv series starring Landwehr years later.